Fraud - Stealing others images and posting them as his

[oz]

Hi All,

I know many of you here in the forums digitally manip images, well today while looking at random images I came across one of mine. Clicked on it, only to see that is was in neither my gallery or Trimoon's , who I often give permission to use my images. I see that he has stolen other peoples images too. I thought I'd put the word out to watch this character before I give him the heads up.

http://www.pbase.com/fitz9016/misc&page=2

Gracen is one of my customers.


Ozzie

[jcboyd]

This is a problem we all face Darren. I just thought it would be from someone outside of the pbase environment. It would seem that an artist on this site would know about using images that belong to someone else. Even when being maniped, the person should obtain permission before using another’s work.

I recently had a gentleman from Poland contact me about using a few of my images on his blog. After some research I agreed to let him use my images. Poland, I would never have known if he had used my images without asking. The fact that he asked went a long way in helping to make my decision. He has provided a link to my galleries and has given me credit for the images.
john

[oz]

Well John this is not the first time I've seen this here on pbase. I saw a guy take images from many world renowned photographers and put them on his site........slug was contacted and he pulled them.

I too, like you have been politely asked by others for permission and I've granted it, like here;

http://www.libirding.com/FeaturedBird.html third image (not my best mind you)

Trimoon, even tho a friend, always asks me permission to use my images, each and every time, I don't have a clue who this thief is and he certainly has not asked permission.

I more or less wanted to share this info with others so they may also lay claim and understand what is going on before we tell him to remove the images.

Ozzie

[bobt54]

I recognized a number of the images in his Misc Photos gallery as Photo Art Challenges from the Innographx Forum. In fact everything from the Beagle to the end of that gallery he has gotten from that site. These are all freely available images to be manipulated. He has then shared his work with the rest of us.

The Innographx site is: http://www.innographx.com/forum/index.php

If you find some of your images on Innographx, then you need to contact the webmistress Phylis Stewart and let her know. She is also a Pbaser as well as are many of the people who frequent that site.

[pstewart]

I know many of you here in the forums digitally manip images, well today while looking at random images I came across one of mine. Clicked on it, only to see that is was in neither my gallery or Trimoon's , who I often give permission to use my images. I see that he has stolen other peoples images too. I thought I'd put the word out to watch this character before I give him the heads up.

http://www.pbase.com/fitz9016/misc&page=2

Yes, Bob is correct. Many of the pictures Dave Fitzpatrick has in the gallery above were done by others, not by him, and appear on my site in Photo Art Challenges and Member Challenges at http://www.innographx.com . Many of these are recent too, so he is still stealing pictures to place on his site!

Rather than reporting this to Slug, I think I will first ask him to remove them. He is a fairly new member of my site, so I suppose I should first write to him and explain that this is improper. I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt... maybe he just didn't know any better?

Phyllis

[pstewart]

Here is the message I sent Fitz. I sent it to him at Pbase, at Innographx, and also by email, so I'm sure he will see it. If the pics aren't removed soon, I guess I'll report it to Slug and cancel his membership on my site. Let's hope it was just a mistake in judgement on his part and not an intent to mislead viewers.

Fitz, it has been brought to my attention that you are putting the work of other Innographx members in your gallery at Pbase. This is not permitted, not by Innographx, not by Pbase, and not by copyright law. Perhaps you didn't know that, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Please remove all photo art pictures from your Pbase galleries that you did not actually do yourself. Also, if there are photo art pieces on your site that YOU did, you must also put a copyright notice beneath the image giving the name of the photographer, unless it's from Stock Exchange or a free site.

Please let me know when you have finished removing all these images from your Pbase gallery. Thanks.

Phyllis

[455rocket]

I've seen plenty of this sort of thing within pbase. Even a few of my own which doesn't bother me as I'm quite flattered that someone decided that some of my shots are good enough to take, and after all I'm no professional so it doesn't cost me anything. If you place anything on the web you should be prepared for people to help themselves. Anything I'm particularly proud of I either don't upload or upload a version at only a limited size so only I have the original.
I came across the below gallery on pbase
http://www.pbase.com/magnificentmodels/liliya_y_toneva
and immediately recognized the work of Rahul Dutta
http://www.pbase.com/rahul/liya
and I wonder if this gallery owner has the permission of Mr. Rahul Dutta to replicate his work???

[oz]

Let me clarify one thing Bob, I have never given permission to anyone other than Trimoon to utilize images of Gracen. I have submitted images for others to use at Phyllis site, but I never posted images of Gracen nor did I authorize anyone else to do so. I reviewed Phyllis' site and she can correct me if I wrong, but these images were blatantly taken!

Gracen is shown here;

http://www.pbase.com/oz/image/32694533


Ozzie

[slowpokebill]

I'm not as nice as some. I have filed a complaint with Slug and have asked Fritz not so nicely to remove the photos he has taken from my galleries.

Bad enough to steal an image but he removed my copyright notice and didn't even give any of us credit.

All of my images are copyrighted and I send CD to the Library of Congress Copyright office along with $30 monthly.

For what ever it is worth using a "registered" image commercially...entering a contest with a prize may be considered commercial...by statute the minimum damages award in the US is$30,000 per use.

For registering your images in the US see the instructions here. It is simple.
http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html

Bill
"Taking It One Day At A Time"

[bobt54]

Let me clarify one thing Bob, I have never given permission to anyone other than Trimoon to utilize images of Gracen. I have submitted images for others to use at Phyllis site, but I never posted images of Gracen nor did I authorize anyone else to do so. I reviewed Phyllis' site and she can correct me if I wrong, but these images were blatantly taken!

Gracen is shown here;

http://www.pbase.com/oz/image/32694533


Ozzie

I am not implying that he was correct in taking your images, it is just that it appears in some of these cases, he did participate in the photo art challenges at Innographx and then posted his version of the images on his site. I have done the same, so as not to burden the Innographx site when I posted my result, but I have noted the images were not mine and have linked back to the original.

Quite frankly I think a public flogging is in order, not for taking one of Ozzie pics but for messing with Wanda.

WE LOVE WANDA JUST THE WAY SHE IS!!!

Keep up the good work, Bill!!!

[oz]

Mr. Fitzgerald apparently was practicing manipulating images and was playing with image Trimoon had posted and inadvertently left them up on his site after sharing a link to them as quoted below

Sorry for misuse of your photo. I was working on a soft painting technique and used Grace as a subject from one of Trimoon's postings on dpReview. I didn't even post a link to it on dpReview as I remember, although I think I did link it in an e-mail to Steve when I was asking him a detail about the technique I was working on.

Sorry for using your image to develop the technique I'm working on. It has been removed.

I am satisfied with his explanation and wanted to clear the air about my original posting. Bob, you were'nt too far off I suppose, but the courtesy of asking permission would've been nice. I often grant it.

Ozzie

[pstewart]

You are correct. I did use your photos, and I am terribly sorry that I caused you this injustice by not getting your permission. I fact, I have not linked anyone to these photos other than an e-mail I sent to my wife. She is a great fan of a contemporary artist named Pino, and I have been trying to develop a photo painting style that follows his style. Pino works often with beautiful women in slightly suggestive and/or reflective poses. I happened upon your work and thought it perfect to try and develop something akin to the Pino style.

It was not my intention to make these repaintings available to the public. As such, I should have passworded the pBase gallery or, better yet, never used the photos in the first place. I apologize and will remove the gallery from pBase immediately.

Dave Fitzpatrick

Here is another note that explains what happened. I'm glad I gave Dave the benefit of the doubt because it all appears to be innocent. Glad we cleared this up.

[foodphoto]

he has taken the nice photos and sh@t all over them in photoshop, a good example of more is quite abysmal. I would'nt worry about copyright there is no threat here....